An’ do what I canI canna help beinSome feart at the thoucht!I’m no what I oucht!An’ thou art sae gran’,Me but an auld man!I haena gotten muckleGuid o’ the warld;Though siller a puckleThegither I hae harlt,Noo I maun be rid o’ ‘t,The ill an’ the guid o’ ‘t!An’ I wud-I s’ no back frae ‘t-Rather…
With lengthening pauses broke, the path grows dumb;The grass floats in; the gazer stands aghast.Tremble not, maiden, though the footprints die;By no air-path ascend the lark’s clear notes;The mighty-throated when he mounts the skyOver some lowly landmark sings and floats.Be of good cheer. Paths vanish from the wave;There all the ships tear each its track…
Whoops from mine ears the sounds of them that singAbout their work, ‘My God, my father-king!’I turn in haste to see thy blessed door,But, lo, a cloud of flies and bats and birds,And stalking vapours, and vague monster-herdsHave risen and lighted, rushed and swollen between!Ah me! the house of peace is there no more.Was it…
Beyond our gaze the line extends,Like wreaths of vapour tempest-hurled!Grasp tighter, brother, lest the stormShould sweep us down from where we stand,And we may catch some human formWe know, amongst the straining band.See! see in yonder misty cloudOne whirlwind sweep, and we shall hearThe voice that waxes yet more loudAnd louder still approaching near!Tremble not,…
Leans from her window a lady white,With her cheek upon her hand.‘Oh, why in the blue so misty, moon?Why so dull in the sky?Thou look’st like one that is ready to swoonBecause her tear-well is dry.‘Enough, enough of longing and wail!Oh, bird, I pray thee, be glad!Sing to me once, dear nightingale,The old song, merry…
Enduring long. At length the dawn revealedA temple’s front, high-lifted from the plain.Closed were the lofty doors that led within;But by a wicket one might entrance gain.‘Twas awe and silence when I entered in;The night, the weariness, the rain were lostIn hopeful spaces. First I heard a thinSweet sound of voices low, together tossed,As if…
For thou hast given me birth,And thy hands have tended me.I would fall asleep on thy breastWhen its swelling folds are bare,When the thrush dreams of its nestAnd the life of its joy in the air;When thy life is a vanished ghost,And the glory hath left thy waves,When thine eye is blind with frost,And the…
Some pretty one who never felt the yoke-Glad girl, or maiden more sedate than she.Pedant it cannot, villain cannot be!Some genius, may-be, his own symbol woke;But puritan, nor rogue in virtue’s cloke,Nor kitchen-maid has done it certainly!Ha, ha! you cannot find the lighter outFor all the blue smoke’s pantomimic gesture-His name or nature, sex or…
God’s TO-MORROW an angel sitting,Ready for joy or pain.My TO-MORROW has no soul,Dead as yesterdays;God’s-a brimming silver bowlOf life that gleams and plays.My TO-MORROW, I mock you away!Shadowless nothing, thou!God’s TO-MORROW, come, dear day,For God is in thee now.
Up which I often ran-to gazeBack with a wondering sight,For then the chimneys I thought highWere down below me quite!All round, where’er I turned mine eyes,Huge hills closed up the view;The town ‘mid their converging rootsWas clasped by rivers two;From, one range to another sprangThe sky’s great vault of blue.It was a joy to climb…
